The Pew Internet and American Life project has just released their survey detailing online political engagement in the 2008 campaign. In the category of "everyone already knew that," were findings that more people are using the Internet than ever, the Internet is now at least equal to newspapers as a source of campaign news, political activism is increasing online, Obama votes are more politically active online than McCain voters, and young people use the Internet more than old people. Well, duh.
However, as is typical for Pew, there were also some very interesting findings. In particular, people are now seeking out partisan websites in much greater numbers than ever before. In fact, partisan news sources are much more sought out online than non-partisan websites (emphasis mine):
Fully a third of online political users (33%) now say that when they get online political information most of the sites they visit share their point of view - up from 26% who said that in 2004. This rise in partisan information-seeking matches a decline in the number of online political users who say most of the sites they visit do not have a particular point of view. In 2004, 32% of online political users said most of the sites they visited had no particular point of view and that percentage dropped to 25% in 2008. There was no difference between 2004 and 2008 in the number of online political users who said most of the sites they visit challenge their point of view.
Both Democrats and Republicans are now more likely to gravitate towards online sites with an explicitly partisan slant than they were in 2004. Fully 44% of Democratic online political users (up from 34% in 2004) and 35% of Republican online political users (up from 26% in 2006) now say that they mostly visit sites that share their political point of view. However, the biggest change between elections occurred among the young. In 2004, 22% of online political users ages 18-24 said most of the sites they visit shared their views. That doubled to 43% of online political users in that age range in 2008.
Those who are most information hungry are the most likely to browse sites that match their views.
It is not surprising that partisanship is increasing even as President Obama is praised for his talk of trying to get past partisanship. Whether the country's public thirst for bipartisanship is an act of projection in pretending that partisanship is something foisted upon it from the outside even though it is rising up internally, or whether it is a backlash response from the dwindling ranks of non-partisan in response to an inevitable rising tide of partisans remains unclear. The truth is that it is probably a mix of both, combined with a nice dash of politicians offering up fake solutions (like bipartisanship) to real problems.
The truth is, however, that no one, even President Obama, can stem or slow a cultural shift of this magnitude. For 7% of Internet users to stop reading non-partisan websites in just four years is a broad social trend bigger than any one person. The country is getting more partisan, whether we like it or not. The best idea is probably to start figuring out how best to manage an increasingly partisan country, rather than pretending it can be wished away by Republicans and Democrats eating lunch together.
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